Helena Rubinstein

Helena Rubinstein (1872 – 1965) was one of the first self-made millionairess of modern times, and created the first publicly-listed global cosmetics corporation.

Madame (as she was universally known) not just introduced innovative products and treatments but also was the first to offer women the ideal of self-invention – a fundamental principle of modernity.

One’s identity, she asserted, is a matter of choice.

“Beauty is Power” - her slogan in 1904

Rubinstein had arrived in Australia in 1894 with 12 pots of “Krakow crème,” as she called the face cream concocted by a chemist friend of her mother’s. This product, later called Valaze, was a start of her beauty empire.

When she died at the age of 94 in 1965, the value of her business was estimated at $60 million. Since 1988, it has been owned by L’Oreal.